what to do when you visit San Francisco

Victorian houses in San Francisco (c) 2019 by David Ourisman, all rights reserved

One of my clients will be visiting San Francisco, so she asked for ideas on what to do on her free days. I wrote an email with links, and I'm repurposing that content here for my readers on Travel Horizons.

Alcatraz Island is a really worthwhile visit. You must get tickets in advance; spots on the ferry out to the island always sell out. The cell house audio tour is the highlight of your visit. You put on headphones and listen to a very well done, pre-recorded tour through the old federal prison.

San Francisco City Guides offers dozens of complimentary walking tours of the city. The program is sponsored by the San Francisco Public Library, and your hotel tax helps support this program. You will learn a lot about the history of the city — the Gold Rush, fires, and earthquakes — and get to know the neighborhood of your choice. See their entire set of offerings here, but I especially recommend the tour called Omni Hotel Walk. Happening on Saturday mornings at 10 a.m., it's marketed especially to Omni guests (but open to everyone), so you'll tend to be in a much smaller group.

SFMOMA, otherwise known as the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, this very fine and newly expanded contemporary art museum is located right next to the St. Regis San Francisco.

de Young Museum, another very fine museum located in Golden Gate Park, has a diverse set of permanent exhibits encompassing art from Africa, Oceania, and the Americas ... and usually a special exhibition as well. General Admission tickets also get you into the Legion of Honor museum the same day.

Golden Gate Park is the green heart of the Sunset neighborhood. Stretching out to the Pacific Coast, enjoy a stroll through Golden Gate Park after your visit to the de Young. The park offers a number of other attractions including the Golden Gate Park Aquarium, the Japanese Tea Garden, and the California Academy of Sciences. Or just bring a picnic lunch and enjoy the sun — or fog....

copyright (c) 2019 by Ourisman Travel LLC. All rights reserved. We provide Virtuoso and other Preferred Partner amenities as an affiliate of Brownell, a Virtuoso® Member. If you have comments on this column, or questions about booking travel, email me or visit my website.

the Tenderloin Museum

Tenderloin Museum (c) 2018 by David Ourisman, all rights reserved

Not on many bucket lists, consider a walk through the Tenderloin when you're in San Francisco. A gritty part of the city, you'll see people living on the streets. There has been no gentrification here, the residents having organized decades ago to prevent the development of luxury hotels and sleek modern office buildings.

We visited the Tenderloin Museum during our stay in the city last weekend. Located in the very heart of the neighborhood, on the corner of Eddy and Leavenworth, this small, well organized museum sets forth the history of neighborhood and its cultural impact on the city. A few insights I took away from my visit:

• Countless musical greats have played and recorded here. 
• The Tenderloin has been a center of LGBTQ activism.
• A dying congregation with just 35 members — Glide Memorial Church — began its ministry of service to the Tenderloin under the leadership of Rev. Cecil Williams, growing into the powerhouse church it is today with a membership of 10,000.

San Francisco visitors will always shop on Union Square, take the ferry out to Alcatraz, ride the cable cars, and visit Golden Gate Park. Definitely do those things when you visit, but consider also the path less traveled. 

copyright (c) 2018 by Ourisman Travel LLC. All rights reserved. We provide Virtuoso and other Preferred Partner amenities as an affiliate of Brownell, a Virtuoso® Member. If you have comments on this column, or questions about booking travel, email me or visit my website.

pictures at an exhibition | de Young Museum

couple viewing photos (c) 2017 by David Ourisman, all rights reserved

We spent Sunday morning at the de Young Museum, located in San Francisco's Golden Gate Park. We concentrated our time on two special exhibitions.

Danny Lyon: Message to the Future. Lyon has been described as "a leading figure in the American street photography movement of the 1960s." This exhibition of 175 photos, as well as a few films and other objects of interest, will be on display until April 30; you've still got three weeks to take advantage of this opportunity. He focused his attention on documenting social and political issues with a special focus on marginalized members of society. There were photographs of the neighborhoods of lower Manhattan being torn down to make room for the World Trade Center's twin towers, civil rights protesters, prisoners, bikers, and persons living on the margins in rural areas in the United States, South America, and China. A very interesting set of photographs, I especially admired the photographer's ability to forge relationships with his subject, allowing him to capture some phenomenal portraits as well as candid shots.

photo on display at the Summer of Love Experience, de Young Museum, San Francisco

The Summer of Love Experience: Art, Fashion, and Rock & Roll. In the summer of 1967, I was sixteen years old and living on the east coast, 2500 miles from Haight Ashbury and totally unaware that the "summer of love" was even going on. This exhibit was a fascinating collection of posters, photographs, hippie clothing, buttons, and other artifacts recalling the culture of the 1960's. One poster featured Joan Baez and her two sisters, encouraging young men to resist the Draft. Its provocative title said it all — Girls Say Yes to Boys Who Say No. The photograph above shows a blissful couple in Golden Gate Park in 1967. Now close to 70 years of age, it makes me wonder where they are now!

San Francisco, one of the most popular U.S. destinations, has so much to offer visitors. Be watching this space for some follow up blog posts over the next week.

copyright (c) 2017 by Ourisman Travel LLC. All rights reserved. We provide Virtuoso and other Preferred Partner amenities as an affiliate of Brownell, a Virtuoso® Member. If you have comments on this column, or questions about booking travel, email me or visit my website.